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PSYCHOSYNTHESIS QUARTERLY The Digital Magazine of the Association for the Advancement of Psychosynthesis Volume 5 Number 4 December 2016 Balancing Our Lopsided Brain - Molly Brown Assagioli’s Reflections on the Poor Man of Assisi - Catherine Ann Lombard A Contrasting Explanation of the Significance of Dreams - Al Marcetti GPS: G-d’s Positioning System - Jill Becker Social Education or Mass Therapy? - Ewa Bialek The Developmental Theory of Psychosynthesis - Kenneth Sørensen Psychosynthesis at School 1964-1981 - Isabelle Küng Articles by Shamai Currim, Alexandra Ratcliffe Poems by C’Anne Chevalier and LauraLee Clinchard The Synthesis Center Moving to Vermont Synthesis SF in SanFrancisco Events in New York, New Zealand and online and more . 1 Psychosynthesis Quarterly contents Balancing Our Lopsided Brain - Molly Brown 3 Editor: Jan Kuniholm Events in New Zealand 5 Assistant Editors: Audrey McMorrow, Walter Polt, and Douglas Russell Two Poems by C’Anne Chevalier 7 Design and Production: Good-bye Yellow Brick Road - Shamai Currim 8 Jan Kuniholm, Walter Polt The Synthesis Center Literally On the Move 9 Psychosynthesis Quarterly is published by Assagioli’s Reflections on The Poor Man of Assisi AAP four times a year in March, June, September and December. Submission deadlines are February 7, - Catherine Ann Lombard 10 May 7, August 7, and November 7. Book Announcement: Gifts of the Mandala 16 Send Announcements, Ideas, Reviews of Journey With Francis and Clair of Assisi 17 Books and Events, Articles, Poetry, Art, A Contrasting Explanation of the Significance of Dreams Exercises, Photos, and Letters: Tell us what has helped your life and work, what can help others, - Al Marcetti 18 and examples of psychosynthesis theory in action. Announcing Synthesis SF in SanFrancisco 22 Notice of Events should be 1500 words or less, and She Loves Me, She Loves Me Not - Shamai Currim 23 articles should usually be 4500 words or less. We accept psychosynthesis-related advertising from Kentucky Center for Psychosynthesis Training 23 members. Non-members who wish to run psycho- Seeds of Hope Seminar - Alexandra Ratcliffe 24 synthesis-related advertising are requested to make Kathleen Cummings Memorial 26 a donation to AAP. Send submittals to: [email protected] GPS: G-d’s Positioning System - Jill Becker 27 The Association for the Advancement Events at the Huntington Center in New York 28 of Psychosynthesis: Social Education or Mass Therapy - Ewa Bialek 29 Founded in 1995, AAP is a Massachusetts nonprofit The Developmental Theory of Psychosynthesis corporation with tax exemption in the United States. - Kenneth Sørensen 32 It is dedicated to advocating on behalf of psycho- synthesis and conducting psychosynthesis educa- Poem by LauraLee Clinchard 43 tional programs. Membership and donations are tax Awaken to Wholeness Summit 45 deductible in the United States. Assagioli on National Affairs 46 AAP membership supports this publication and Psychosynthesis at School 1964-1981 - Isabelle Küng 47 the other educational activities of AAP: $75 (US) per year, with a sliding-scale fee of $45 to $75 for those who need it. Go to Notes from the Editor http://aap-psychosynthesis.org/join-aap/ or contact us at (413) 743-1703 or [email protected] The list of contents for this issue is so long I had to change this page layout! Wow! You will see psychosynthesis from 50 years ago right If you are NOT a member we invite you to join AAP and support psychosynthesis in North up to the present, working around the world to change lives and Life. America and the world. This issue embraces history, practice, theory, social action, training, Views expressed in Psychosynthesis Quar- reflection, waking, dreaming, and modern neuroscience. You’ll just terly are not necessarily those of the editors or of have to read on to see what I mean, for I don’t have words to cover AAP. AAP makes every effort to ensure the accura- what is in this issue. cy of what appears in the Quarterly but accepts no This issue completes the fifth year of Psychosynthesis Quarterly, liability for errors or omissions. We may edit and each issue has been chock-full of material sent in by readers from submissions for grammar, syntax, and length. around the globe. I want to invite you, if Psychosynthesis Quarterly is sent to all cur- you are a practitioner, student or teacher rent AAP members and to others who are interested of psychosynthesis, to join our roster of in our work. Our membership list is never sold. authors and contributors. People are in- © Copyright 2016 by AAP terested in what you are doing and think- 61 East Main Street ing, and your reports of activities, Cheshire, MA 01225-9627 thoughts and reflections, and articles of All Rights Reserved interest help our community remain vi- brant and a constructive force in the world. www.aap-psychosynthesis.org Jan Kuniholm 2 Balancing Our Lopsided Brain Molly Brown funny thing happened to many of us humans on our way to the 21st century: we developed a lopsided brain. AThis started very early in human evolution, when we began to create tools to use with our dexterous hands and opposable thumbs. Tools focused our attention down to details and problems to be solved—a specialty of the left hemisphere of our brain. Making tools and using them in precise ways activated our left hemisphere and we began to rely on it more and more. In the process, many of those of us in “Western Civilization” began to ignore and neglect the equally marvelous capacities of our right hemisphere: broad awareness of the surrounding world; openness to newness and novelty; seeing wholes and whole individuals, as well as the context and relationships within which those wholes exist. Many indigenous cultures remained in better balance, even while they were oppressed by the colonial forces of Europe (and later, the USA). In his book, The Master and his Emissary: The Divided Brain and the Making of the Western World (2009), psychiatrist and writer Iain McGilchrist explores the sometimes conflicting capacities of the two hemispheres of the brain, going far beyond the popular notions of “rational” thinking and language in the left brain, creativity and spatial perception in the right. He describes and documents a “coherent pattern of differences” between the two hemispheres that “helps explain aspects of human experience … and even helps explain the trajectory of our common lives in the Western world.” See McGilchrist’s Ted Talk for a vivid summary of his thesis: https://www.ted.com/talks/iain_mcgilchrist_the_divided_brain. Humans are not alone in our divided brains. In birds, for example, the two hemispheres (and the corresponding opposite sides of the body) specialize in distinct tasks. It’s easier to see this in most birds, because their eyes are located on opposite sides of their heads. The left eye is operated by the right hemisphere, and the right eye by the left hemisphere. The right eye (left hemisphere) specializes in detail and focus, so the bird can distinguish familiar eatable seeds from the background of dirt and gravel. Meanwhile, the bird’s left eye (right hemisphere) points upward and out, scanning the world around for whatever might appear there: predators or mates or competing brethren or something entirely new. Presumably, this arrangement works out well for birds, with each hemisphere doing its job in cooperation with the other. However, McGilchrist suggests that in humans (or at least Europeans and Euro-Americans), due in part to our highly developed pre-frontal cortex, our left and right hemispheres “are in fact involved in a sort of power struggle, and this explains many aspects of contemporary Western culture.” Our left hemisphere was not dominant from the start; the imbalance in the two hemispheres’ influence on us arises from the interplay between the brain and our behavior, each subtly shaping the other, reinforced by social conditioning and child-rearing practices. Over time, we in the “West” have gradually and inadvertently trained our left hemisphere to dominate the more subtle and holistic capacities of our right hemisphere. The left hemisphere seems to prefer analysis, abstractions, precision, categories, and familiar generalities. It pays attention to concrete, fixed, and static objects, and predictable situations. Its job is to grasp, manipulate, control, and use various separate objects and procedures for the perceived short term benefit of its organism. It excels in technical and bureaucratic tasks, isolated from their possible effects on the larger world. It operates from its map of reality—its representation of reality—rather than on the basis of ongoing moment-to-moment feedback from the social and natural environment. (Continued on page 4) 3 (Continued from page 3) The right hemisphere offers us a very different view of the world and a very different pattern of relationship with the world. The right hemisphere experiences “the live, complex, embodied, world of individual, always unique beings, forever in flux, a net of interdependencies, forming and reforming wholes, a world with which we are deeply connected” (p. 31). It operates on the basis of ever-changing feedback from the social and natural environment. In learning about our divided brain, I am gaining insight into the underlying psychology of our unsustainable economy, politics, and culture. How does this imbalance towards the left hemisphere’s way of perceiving show up in today’s dominant culture? Primarily, we see it in the focus on short-term specific goals, like profits or the need for more jobs (any job will do) in a struggling economy. The right hemisphere would consider the effects of acting on these short-term goals—on the larger world, on the environment (our life support system), on longer term trends (such as climate change, or changing cultural values).

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